


Maiden's Dream

by DesertVixen



Category: Anne of Green Gables - L. M. Montgomery
Genre: F/F, Pre-Femslash, could be canon compliant, fluffy feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-30
Updated: 2019-08-30
Packaged: 2020-09-30 11:10:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20446184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesertVixen/pseuds/DesertVixen
Summary: Anne and Diana share a picnic...





	Maiden's Dream

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DWEmma](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DWEmma/gifts).

She had been lonely when Anne went off to Queen’s Academy in Charlottetown. Diana did not want more school, even if her mother would have allowed it, but she missed Anne. It was silly – after all, she had gone eleven years without a certain red-haired orphan girl. Mrs. Barry felt that Diana had enough formal schooling to be a wife and mother, and that it was time to start focusing on more practical methods. The prospect didn’t make Diana unhappy, exactly, but it was Anne’s company, their experiences that she missed. With Anne, nothing was boring.

And yet, she had been so proud that her friend was the one who took the Avery scholarship, so proud that Anne had been a success. She had been steeling herself for the day when Anne left to go to Redmond, but Diana had never expected that her friend’s dream would take such a tragic turn. Matthew’s unexpected death had kept Anne here in Avonlea for two more years, during which the two had grown even closer.

When it came about that Anne could, indeed, go to Redmond College, Diana had smiled bravely as Anne departed. 

It was even worse than when she was away at Queen’s Academy. Then, Diana knew she could look forward to weekend visits and holiday visits, but Redmond was too far away for anything but holidays. The thought that Anne might be forming relationships with other Redmond girls – girls who not only appreciated how she saw the world, but understood it, reciprocated it – haunted her dreams. Diana knew she saw the world in a prosaic and practical way, ever since the Haunted Wood incident. While she loved to listen to Anne, loved to fall under the spell of her words again and again, Diana was practical in a way that Anne was not. 

Yet, it had been practicality that won Mrs. Barry’s acceptance of her daughter’s bosom friend when all had seemed lost. The orphan girl who Mrs. Barry had shunned had saved Minnie May from the croup. Diana would never stop being thankful for that, but she was always puzzled by the fact that the Anne who could so coolly administer ipecac and steam to a little girl who could barely breathe was the same one whose kitchen disasters were legendary.

So Diana was intensely relieved when Anne came home that first summer, seemingly the same Anne who had gone away. Mrs. Barry couldn’t resist her pleas to have a day with just her Diana, and consented to release Diana from her usual chores.

Diana had made up a perfectly lovely picnic basket – she had developed into quite the cook – and the two of them set off down Lovers’ Lane. She was rather proud of being able to show Anne a new beautiful spot. Diana had discovered a sheltered little clearing while searching for some wildflowers, made by a few fallen trees. It was far enough off the path that a person could imagine herself to be completely alone with the trees. Flowers bloomed and Diana found herself going there often to read her letters from Redmond and daydream about having her dearest Anne home.

Anne’s reaction to the bower was everything that Diana could have desired. “Diana! It’s the loveliest little hidden corner of the woods! Have you named it?”

Here, of course, Diana faltered. She was no good at the fanciful names that Anne came up with out of nowhere, and had not even tried with this place. It was simply her place of dreams. “The Bower?”

“It certainly is a bower,” Anne said slowly, “but I think we should call it the Maiden’s Dream. It seems like the perfect hideaway for a romantic young maiden, pining for her unattainable love.” 

Diana nodded with approval. She had known that Anne would have a better suggestion. Shyly Diana confided, “This is where I come to read all your letters.” 

That was true, although Diana didn’t mention that she often carried a letter around with her. Anne didn’t seem quite so far away when her words were in Diana’s pocket.

“Then when I write to you, I will imagine you are here – even if it isn’t summer,” Anne added after a moment. “Although I think it would be lovely in any season.”

They sat on one of the fallen trees, using another broad log as a table of sorts, and unpacked the lunch. Diana had made much of it, but Anne had put in a few contributions as well, including a small bottle of raspberry cordial that made the two of them share a remembering smile. Anne couldn’t stop exclaiming how good everything tasted, which made Diana blush.

At last, they lay back on pillows of velvety moss, drowsily sharing stories and memories until they both slipped into sleep.

Diana dreamed of Anne in her first puffed sleeves dress, the beautiful brown gloria that Mrs. Rachel Lynde had made up for Anne. She wasn’t the younger girl who had thrilled over those sleeves, but a different Anne, a grown-up Anne whose slender throat rose above the collar, her rich hair dotted with small white roses, her gray eyes sparkling with laughter. They spun around, twirling each other in imitation of the dances they had watched, dancing to music only they could hear. Diana wanted nothing more for this never to end, wanted to be with Anne like this forever…

She woke from the dream with a bit of a start, and turned her head to see Anne sleeping beside her, her fine profile graceful and relaxed. Diana was reminded of the time Anne had played Elaine, the lily maid, how she had “lain as though she smiled.” A smile played over Anne’s lips now, and Diana wondered what dream prompted the smile. She would be content to lay here and watch her dearest Anne sleep forever, just soaking in the sheer joy of having her all to herself. Now Anne reminded her less of the lily maid and more of Sleeping Beauty in the fairytale, where the beautiful princess only waited for True Love’s Kiss to awaken her.

Not for the first time, Diana wondered why True Love’s Kiss had to be delivered by a prince. She let herself indulge in the fantasy of brushing her lips against Anne’s. Surely, here in this place, it would be all right to indulge herself.

She had almost worked up the courage to lean down, to touch Anne’s alabaster cheeks, to touch her lips to Anne’s, when her friend sighed and opened her eyes.

“Oh, Diana,” she said softly, “today is such a wonderful day, just the two of us together.”

Diana could not disagree, but she thought that a kiss might have made it even more wonderful. The spell was broken, and the moment was gone.

Perhaps, she thought wistfully, there would be another such moment.

She could at least hope for one.

**Author's Note:**

> So I hope you like it! I don't generally write slashy stuff for these two, but I hope it has all the fluffy feels and adjectives and Anne being Anne.
> 
> It was so horrible, I had to reread 5 of the books while I was working on this. :)


End file.
